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English Composition I and II
Philosophy and Mission
Our composition sequence勇NC 1101 and ENC 1102謡ill stress the
process of writing in order to develop university level writing
skills that will assure a university-level product. Through an
emphasis on audience and purpose, students will engage a variety
of writing strategies in order to develop the basic components
of good writing: focus, unity, coherence, and development. In
each course, students will write at least 6,000 words of graded
work in order to satisfy a portion of the Gordon Rule. This writing
will include productive revision in order to reinforce the importance
of the writing process.
The emphasis in the students' writing will be on audience and
purpose. For each writing assignment, students will be expected
to define an audience or narrowed group of people that they will
be writing to (and perhaps even a magazine that such an essay
could be submitted to, if appropriate) and a clear, narrowed purpose
or effect that they want to achieve with that piece of writing.
In order to achieve their stated purpose, students will use a
variety of relevant rhetorical strategies such as those that will
have been discussed in the readings for the course. In accord
with the writing process, the students will draft their essays
to become more reader-based and less writer-based through their
revisions and in fulfilling their purpose.
ENC 1101 and 1102 will stress in each essay assignment the following
specific steps in the writing process:
- prewriting (brainstorming, free writing, listing, cubing,
clustering, etc.);
- drafting (pulling all of the prewriting together into a first,
rough draft that begins to establish a thesis);
- revising (focusing the thesis and strengthening the development
to write a second draft; this draft would then be revised again
to strengthen topic sentences, coherence, and unity and to further
focus the thesis and strengthen the development, etc.);
- editing (spelling, documentation of research, word choice,
etc.).
In addition, essays will demonstrate the following basic components
of good writing:
- Focus葉he thesis statement or central idea of the essay will
be narrowed and specific so that the topic can be thoroughly
developed in the essay;
- Unity葉he examples and ideas developed in the essay will relate
directly to the thesis so that the essay does not stray from
the central idea;
- Coherence葉he essay will flow from one idea to the next through
the use of strong topic sentences, transitions between paragraphs
and ideas, and repetition of key ideas, phrases, or images throughout
the essay;
- Development葉he body of the essay, through the use of research,
reference to literary or other texts, and personal examples,
will fully and completely develop the thesis or central idea
of the essay and will relate to the audience and purpose;
- Mechanics葉he essay will be free of grammar, punctuation,
and spelling errors.
Acknowledgements
The composition mission, goals, outcomes, and skills document
is the work of a collaborative effort of members of the Writing
Faculty of 1998-99; they include Carol Bledsoe, Jim Brock, Bill
Doyle, Ron Hefner, Judy Lezotte, Laura Sanders, Tom Sawallis,
Brad Sullivan, Rebecca Totaro, and Jennifer Wojcik.
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